Notre Dame Releases Salaries for Brian Kelly, Muffet McGraw, Mike Brey & Jack Swarbrick for 2018-19

Mike Brey was the highest compensated Notre Dame Fighting Irish coach in the 2018-2019 fiscal year, according to tax documents released today by the university.

But the federal disclosure doesn’t require the university to detail at least two sources of compensation for football coach Brian Kelly, which likely means he had the highest income of any coach during the year ending June 30, 2019.

The university reported it made payments to Kelly’s limited liability company, but were excluded because they’re not required as part of the IRS Form 990 disclosure. As in past years, the accountants also noted that Kelly “is permitted to receive compensation from external sources with prior written approval from the university.” Since the university is not a party to those agreements —- for example, between Kelly and Under Armour — and the coach doesn’t provide any services to the university because of those agreements, they don’t have to be included in this document.

The university’s top compensated employees for this reporting period were:

• Scott C. Malpass, the vice president and chief investment officer: $4,880,935 (Last period: $10,125,247)
• Michael D. Donovan, managing director of investments: $2,273,118 (Last period: $4,464,394
• John B. “Jack” Swarbrick Jr., athletic director: $2,585,125 (Last period: $1,688,111)
• Brian Kelly, head football coach: $1,863,893 (Last period: $1,665,020)
• Muffet McGraw, head women’s basketball coach: $2,071,822 (Last period: $1,561,763)
• Michael P. Brey, head men’s basketball coach: $1,680,981 (Last period: $1,256,700)
• Richard Buhrman, investment director: $1,5661,023
• Rev. John Jenkins, president of the university: $1,125,653. paid directly to the Congregation of Holy Cross. (Last period: $1,086,106)

Brey’s compensation figure above does not include $678,000 paid to him by Play by Play Sports, the multi-media marketing rights holder for Notre Dame. McGraw received $150,000 from the same entity.

Kelly’s base compensation was $1.29 million. He received $317,000 in bonuses and incentives. McGraw’s base compensation was $1.218 million. She received $678,958 in bonuses. Brey’s base compensation was $1.03 million. He received $495,378 in bonuses.

Most of Malpass’, Donovan’s and Buhrman’s compensations are incentive based, and reflective of the performance of the university’s endowment pool. The pool returned 7.2 percent for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2019, and ended the year with a value of $13.72 billion, up from $13.12 billion at the end of the prior fiscal year.

Malpass received $2.96 million in the 2018 calendar year related to the performance of the university’s investment pool. Donovan received $1.13 million during the same year and Buhrman received $713,099 related to this program.